This document summarizes a research study that assessed the visibility of hotels in Hong Kong on smartphones. The study examined the availability of hotel websites on different smartphone operating systems and availability of smartphone apps in application stores. The results showed higher star rated and chain affiliated hotels generally had better visibility on smartphones. The study highlights the need for hotels to improve smartphone accessibility and develop mobile-friendly websites and apps to connect with mobile consumers. Limitations and opportunities for future research are also discussed.

1. Assessing the Visibility of Hotels On Smartphones:
A Case Study of Hotels in Hong Kong
Daniel LEUNG 1, Hee Andy LEE 2 , Lawrence FONG 3, & Rob LAW 3
1
Department of Tourism and Service Management,
MODUL University Vienna, Austria
2
School of Tourism,
The University of Queensland, Australia
3
School of Hotel and Tourism Management,
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
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Slide Number 1

2. Agenda
• Introduction
• Literature review
• Research method
• Results
• Discussions
• Limitations and future research
• Questions and answers
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3. Introduction
• Smartphones have been increasingly used to
research and purchase tourism products
 Nearly one-sixth of traffic to hotel websites came
from smartphones and tablets (eMarketer, 2012c)
 Number of consumers booking travel on
smartphones and tablets would increase from
16 million in 2012 to 36.7 million in 2016
(eMarketer, 2012d)
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4. Research gap (1)
• Increasing number of studies on:
 The extent of travel-related capabilities
(Lashkari, Parhizkar, & Mohamedali, 2010)
 The impact of travellers’ touristic experience
(Wang, Park, & Fesenmaier, 2012)
 The level of adoption by tourism suppliers
(Liu & Law, 2013)
• Empirical studies in the hotel industry is scarce
 Dominant in the travel domain (Dickinson et al., 2012;
Liu & Law, 2013; Wang et al., 2012; Wang & Xiang, 2012)
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5. Research gap (2)
• Online consumers use their smartphones
to connect with brands via both company
websites and/or smartphone apps
• Attention towards mobile websites is scant
 Focus on smartphone apps only (Dickinson et al., 2012;
Liu & Law, 2013; Wang et al., 2012; Wang & Xiang, 2012)
 The readiness of the hotel industry to the mobile
consumerism era has not been fully examined
 How visible are hotels in the smartphone era?
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6. Research objectives
• To examine the visibility of all Hong Kong hotel
websites on smartphones using different
operating systems
• To examine the availability of smartphone apps
developed by all Hong Kong hotels in different
smartphone application stores
• To highlight the association between:
 Visibility of hotels on smartphones & Star ratings
 Visibility of hotels on smartphones & Brand affiliation
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7. Smartphone in H&T
• Tourism is an information intensive industry in which
people search for a large amount of information,
particularly in unfamiliar environments (Kurata, 2012)
• Smartphones with increased capacity in communication
and connectivity provide a wide range of support for:
 Routine travel activities (e.g., planning and reservation)
 Detailed travel activities (e.g., locating tourist spots)
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8. Smartphone apps
Advantages
• Smartphone apps are more responsive
and convenient than websites from user
experience perspective (Wisniewski, 2011)
Disadvantages
• The platform-specific nature and timeconsuming cyclical update of smartphone
apps make some users prefer visiting
company websites via the pre-installed
browsers (Wisniewski, 2011)
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9. Mobile websites
Potential problem
• Due to the relatively small screen size,
smartphones are limited in some features
and unable to display some information
which is available on desktop computers
(Lobo, Kaskaloglu, Kim, & Herbert, 2011)
• If a website is not user-friendly, travellers
are less likely to form a good impression
about a destination which, in turn,
negatively influences their decision making
process (Han & Mills, 2006)
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10. Visibility
Availability & Star ratings?
• The rating system indicates a tangible commitment made
by firms to particular levels of service provision and quality
(Abrate, Capriello, & Fraquelli, 2011)
• Higher star ratings relate positively to enhanced physical
attributes and higher quality in all aspects
 Hotels with higher star ratings may offer more comprehensive
service and better online experience for consumers in order to
maintain their service standard and reputation
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11. Visibility
Availability & Brand affiliation?
• A brand name implies the creation of a standardized
product or production process (Klein & Saft, 1985)
• Chain hotels have a better quality assurance policy and
implementation scheme due to the advantages in financial
and technical support (Barrows & Powers, 2008)
 Chain hotels are believed to be able to outperform their
independent counterparts in the development of smartphone
apps and mobile websites
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12. Research method
Target sample
• All 122 hotels in Hong Kong, which are members of the
Hong Kong Hotels Association, were analysed
Selected mobile operating systems (International Data Corporation, 2013)
• Android (79.3%)
• iOS (13.2%)
• Windows Phone (3.7%)
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13. Research method
• The visibility of the hotel websites were
then coded based on pre-determined
trichotomous scales
 1 = Convert to mobile website
 2 = Convert to desktop website
 3 = Invisible
• All coding results were cross-verified
by multiple researchers to ensure their
validity
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14. Research method
• The availability of the smartphone apps
was recorded based on the written
instruction
 1 = Smartphone app is available
 2 = Smartphone app is unavailable
• Another round of searching was
conducted on the website versions of
those three application stores
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15. Visibility (Mobile websites)
Brand affiliation
Star ratings
3-star
(n=40)
4-star
(n=46)
5-star
(n=31)
χ2
Chain
(n=96)
Indp.
(n=21)
χ2
iOS smartphones
Mobile
23 (57.5%)
22 (47.8%)
23 (74.2%)
8.98
58 (60.4%) 10 (47.6%) 1.51
Desktop
17 (42.5%)
24 (52.2%)
7 (22.6%)
(p < 0.1)
37 (38.5%) 11 (52.4%) (n.s.)
Invisible
1 (3.2%)
1 (1.0%)
0 (0.0%)
Android smartphones
Mobile
22 (55.0%)
22 (47.8%)
23 (74.2%)
6.58
57 (59.4%) 10 (47.6%) 1.31
Desktop
18 (45.0%)
23 (50.0%)
8 (25.8%)
(n.s.)
38 (39.6%) 11 (52.4%) (n.s.)
Invisible
1 (2.2%)
1 (1.0%)
0 (0.0%)
Windows Phone smartphones
Mobile
15 (37.5%)
18 (39.1%)
19 (61.3%)
11.92
46 (47.9%) 6 (28.6%)
Desktop
25 (62.5%)
28 (60.9%)
10 (32.3%)
(p < 0.05)
48 (50.0%) 15 (71.4%) (n.s.)
Invisible
2 (6.5%)
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2 (2.1%)
3.36
0 (0.0%)
Slide Number 15

16. Availability (Smartphone apps)
Brand affiliation
Star ratings
4-star
(n=46)
5-star
(n=31)
χ2
Chain
(n=96)
10 (25.0%)
12 (26.1%)
21 (67.7%)
17.44
40 (41.7%) 3 (14.3%)
Unavailable 30 (75.0%)
34 (73.9%)
10 (32.3%)
(p < 0.01)
56 (58.3%) 18 (85.7%) (p < 0.05)
10 (25.0%)
10 (21.7%)
15 (48.4%)
6.97
33 (34.4%) 2 (9.5%)
Unavailable 30 (75.0%)
36 (78.3%)
16 (51.6%)
(p < 0.05)
63 (65.6%) 19 (90.5%) (p < 0.05)
0 (0.0%)
3 (9.7%)
4.32
5 (5.2%)
46 (100%)
28 (90.3%)
3-star
(n=40)
Indp.
(n=21)
χ2
iOS smartphones
Available
5.56
Android smartphones
Available
5.076
Windows Phone smartphones
Available
2 (5.0%)
Unavailable 38 (95.0%)
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0 (0.0%)
1.143
91 (94.8%) 21 (100%)
Slide Number 16

17. Discussions (Mobile websites)
• Hotels in Hong Kong generally acknowledge and adapt to
the smartphone wave by developing mobile websites for
connecting with consumers on different platforms
• A “user-unfriendly” website would discount consumers’
interest to view, purchase and re-enter it (Hasan & Abuelrub, 2011)
• Hoteliers are necessary to assure that their websites are
smartphone-friendly and thereby able to accessible to a
much larger audience
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18. Discussions (Smartphone apps)
• The trend of developing smartphone apps in Hong Kong ‘s
hotel industry is relatively less eminent
• Smartphone users’ preference is strongly in favour of
smartphone apps over mobile websites owing to their high
usability (Moth, 2013)
• Hotels are encouraged to develop their smartphone apps
for distributing products to and creating a close connection
with current and potential customers
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19. Discussions
• Brand affiliation plays a tremendous role on:
Hotel’s inclination towards technology adoption (Siguaw et al., 2000)
 Hotel website design quality (Au Yeung & Law, 2004)
 Hotel website information quality (Leung, Sun, & Fong, 2013)
 Visibility of hotels on smartphones (Leung, Lee, Fong, & Law, 2014)

• Difference in financial and technical support ???
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20. Limitations & Future research
Limitations
• Only member hotels of the Hong Kong Hotels Association were
examined and cross-sectional data collected in July 2013 were analysed
• Other mobile operating systems (e.g., BlackBerry OS by BlackBerry
and Symbian by Nokia) were excluded
Future research
• To analyse hotels in other countries and different types of mobile
devices
• To examine the quality of mobile websites and smartphone apps
owned and managed by hotel companies
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21. Thank You
Questions & Answers
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